Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-01-23
SHOP GIRLS IN SLAVERY.
TOIIis MANACLES WORN FOR
STARVATION STIPENDS.

Brains During hours When Sleep
should hold Sway-The Wages of the
Beginners and Those Old in the Hsr-
ness.
New YORK, Jan. 22.-They say that
Mrs. LAMA, the pet author OF the fash
ionable world just now, dreams the
plots OF her best novels. If persistent
dreaming were requisite of modern
authorship how the ranks OF the guild
might be recruited from the shop girl
population.
"The dreaming is worse than the work."
said dispenser of handkerchiefs, laces
and embroideries to me in a momentary
lull Of the afternoon riot in one Of New
fork's biggest dry goods stores the other
day. GAN night long live the day over
again. Hands fly before my face this way
and that, pointing to one thing, reaching
for another. Women crowd before the
counter ten deep; they storm it so vio-
lently that the front ranks are lifted right
on top of the show cases, and there they
mouth and gibber and gesticulate at me
till wake with a start in fear of an
avalanche OF angry women. In my
dreams the cash girls are all stupid, the
bundles come united, the change is
always wrong, returned parcels are
fung in my face till look TO the
morning to rest me from the labors Of the
might"
From where l sat on the whirling stool
Sn front of this damsel Of the black apron
and dangling scissors, l looked about on
the endless panorama that had been
passing before her eyes all dav. The bon
neted crowds pushed and jostled, they
surged this way and counter currents set
that way; there was a din OF a multitude
of voices lifted in interminable questions;
the air was alternately hot with the
breath OF this struggling mass of
humanity and chilled as January blast
rushed In from an opened door. Then |
looked at my dreamer. Her arms were
tired with reaching down boxes and put
ting them back again. 1t had been so in
the morning, it was so at noon. il would
be so at night. She was asking herself
or was asking myself for her-where
the myriads OF people came from, what
they all wanted, why they couldn't get it
quickly and go away. Never mind, the
great public must be served even If backs
broke.
Multiply the dreamer by 80, 900 or there
nbouts and you have the shop girls of
New York. They are young and
they are old, they are pretty
and they are hollow eyed and
their hair is streaked with gray. They
live at home with their mothers; they
gather their household treasures about
them in little & by 8 hall bedrooms in
dreary boarding houses, and they keep
house with families of little folks and big
folks dependent on them. They are city
born, they land at Castle Garden and
they lock IN from the country eager in
the first flush OF young womanhoOd 10 earn
an independent living. They are light
headed and talk of the theatre and their
best young man on the horse cars; they
are studious and read Schiller and Heine
in the original in the same vehIcles. |
have seen them try on bonnets above
their own fluffy curls in the intervals of
busting In the morning before the days
grind began, until it seemed their
apologies for brains must be chaos in
describable of ribbons and laces and vel
vets and feathers, and stylish" shapes
and ''sweet" effects; and have seen them
handing about an autograph letter from
Bartholdi, in which the French sculptor
thanked Them for choosing his name to
grace their study club.
The cloak room OF one OF New York's
interminable dry goods houses is, in it
self, revelation of the bewildering
growth OF the shop girl population. One
house, possibly the largest, employs q
force of 1900 employees, and of these-1wo.
thirds are women; 1,600 hats and bonncts.
grave and gay, 1,609 'Gloaks and shawIs
Ea1g in ehQless rows about Its robiug
rooms, and the comings and the goings,
the dofings and the donnings OF those
cloaks and those hats are watched by the
sharp ewes OF the "tImekeeper," who sits
{ day perched at his desk just without
!, DOR. The wearers OF that armory OF
j, troop in squads In the mornin ;they
T., cut a few at a time as tnev can be
spared for lunch at noon, and they flock
out rcjolced to be at liberty at night.
Their tempers are worn to such thin
edge by keeping a stock of smiles on hand
for all humanity that they grow irritable
among themselves on small prOvocation
sometimes, and wrangle about whose
turn it is TO come early next morning 20
shake out the gowns and brush the cloaks
and wind the ribbons and put away the
gloves. and variously take care Of the
multitudinous apparel of New York femi-
ninity; or who can eat at and who must
stay her starved stomach till 3. When
teaching she said she was tired
of making up her face to suit
other people; she wanted her personality
TO herself. The $4,000 shop girls from :
O'Clock in the morning till from TO 10 at
night, own neither their faces nor
their tastes nor their opinions and it's
small wonder their individuality will
assert itself now and then in little petty
spite.
What does she get for it, There is
small opportunity for the saleswoman TO
pile up a fortune. Her wages vary ac-
cOrding to age, experience, good looks
sometimes, the disposition OF the house
she serves always. Under the most favor
able circumstances, in those establish
ments-fOr such eXist-which take
sympathetic interest in the welfare of
their employees. young girl OF Is or
thereabouts may earn from SO 10 81 a
week during the first year or two OF her
service. Sometimes she earns more,
The figures may be as high as So to IS;
but, on the other hand they may be lower
sometimes she does not get above 80. II
she shows capacity for her work there is
a chance OF promotion: $40 per week for
young women VINO has reached - or %
is not so rare as it might be and SIS is
not altogether unheard Of l do not think
ever came upon salesglrl prOper-one
not at the head OF q department OF more
or less mportance-whose weekly wage
ran above the last-named sum. For ex-
perleBced buyers, women in charge OF the |
dressmaking and other rooms, etc, the
case is, of course, different. There are a
limited number OF good places with good
salaries attached. SO long as The work
of women is as plenty as 1t is. and tie
ruling market rates for IL are so low. even
the hest-disposed employers viii hardly